Working with Tools in Paint Shop Pro 8 - Materials for Painting and Drawing(Page 9 of 16 )

Paint Shop Pro gives you lots of choices of materials for painting, drawing, filling areas of an image, and adding text. You can choose from many styles—a color, gradient, or pattern. Add a texture to any style to create a unique material for use with your tool.

Key Term:Gradient, pattern, or texture—A gradient is a gradual transition between two colors, sometimes by way of a third (or more) color. A pattern is a design that repeats at regular intervals, like wallpaper. A texture is an irregular pattern that simulates a textured surface such as wood, fur, or marble.

You select the material for a tool from the Materials palette, shown here. As you can see, the Materials palette has two tabs: the Color tab and the Swatches tab. Like those sample cards you get from a paint store, a swatch is any material that you've saved for reuse: a single color, a combination of colors, gradients, or patterns, perhaps in addition to a texture. To reuse a swatch you've saved, click the Swatches tab and then click the swatch. You'll learn how to select a material and save your own swatches in upcoming tasks.

Tip - The Materials palette is normally docked along the right side of the window. If it is not in view, redisplay it by selecting View, Palettes, Materials. Some swatches have already been saved for you on the Swatches tab; these were created by PSP, and you can remove them if you like.

Figure 3.20 The Materials palette.

To the right of the Available Colors panel are samples of the two materials that are currently chosen for use by your active tool. Notice there are two pairs of samples; the smaller pair is reserved just for colors, while the larger pair shows the currently chosen material—a combination of the current color, pattern, gradient, and texture. Having two sample pairs allows you the flexibility of changing just the color without having to adjust the material as well. For example, you can use the Foreground Color box to change from red to yellow without affecting the pattern, gradient, or texture shown on the Foreground Materials box. You'll learn how to select colors and materials in the next few tasks.

The Materials palette contains many shortcuts you can use to save yourself some time when choosing the material you want to work with:

To swap the currently selected foreground and background colors, click the Swap Colors icon.

To swap the currently selected foreground and background materials, click the Swap Materials icon.

To bring back a color or material you've used recently, right-click the appropriate samples box and then click a material or color from the Recent Materials list that appears.

To apply your material selections to all painting, drawing, fill, and text tools, enable the All tools check box at the bottom of the Materials palette. When this box is disabled, any materials choices you make apply only to the active tool; when you select a new tool, the previously chosen materials for that tool are recalled.

Tip - A smaller version of the Recent Materials list is also available from within the Material or Color dialog box discussed in upcoming tasks. Just click the Recent Materials button displayed to the right of the Current color box to display the list.

To toggle between the most recently selected color, gradient, or pattern, click the Style button and select the style you want. To turn on/off the currently selected texture, click the Texture button. To turn off both style and texture and use transparency, click the Transparency button.

This chapter is from Paint Shop Pro 8, by Jennifer Fulton, (Sams, 2004, ISBN: 0672323893). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today.